Sunday 20 May 2018

Schubert Weekend - TEMPESTA | Stormy References in Schubert’s Lieder

Schubert’s sense of the dramatic is a hallmark of his style, and nowhere is it more apparent than in his famous setting of Goethe’s Erlkönig. The musical topos that Schubert employs is one that Dr Clive McClelland has termed tempesta. Schubert systematically employed tempesta to great effect in his Lieder, with the clear purpose to go beyond mere pictorialism in order to instigate a fearful response in his listeners. This talk focusses on storm references in Schubert’s songs, especially the variety of effects used in his cycle Winterreise.
Dr Clive McClelland is Associate Professor in Musicology at the University of Leeds, and Chairman-elect of the Schubert Institute UK. His book Tempesta: Stormy Music in the Eighteenth Century has just been published.